Ubin Redux!

Met up with my Fuego mates at 8.30am today, instead of the arranged 8am (I was way way way late...), for the trip to Ubin for cycling! Actually supposed to meet up with Chee Hau and Kent at Changi Jetty Ferry Terminal at 9.15am, but due to us having to buy some supplies for the trip to Ubin, we could only meet them at 9.45am.

And it was only around 10.30am that we had our breakfast done and ready to cross over to the island which is still green and nice. Proceeded to rent our bikes from the shops there, and Mark was 'coerced' to go to Ubin with us as he had joined us for breakfast, so why not Ubin? Haha.

The problem was he wasn't so much of a good rider, so initially we got a bike each, but the situation wasn't good enough to warrant a "Move-Out" signal, so Junjie got a tandem bike to pair with Mark. Power rider, in fact. This is because the routes which we are going are bound to be tough for the tandem bikers, as they are mainly dirt tracks with uneven terrain, so definitely the tandem bikers would need more skill and more butt 'meat' so as to take in the bumps along the terrain.

Before it all starts...


Moving off!


JJ & Me! Plus! A pair of fingers!


Anqi, Weili & Xiao Wang!


JJ & Mark coming in!

Moreover, it rained right after we left the Basketball Court, so we had to seek immediate shelter from one of the huts. The rain lasted some time, and we ended up talking cock under the shelter and playing games to pass the time away.


May the power of the fingers combine...

After the rain had subsided a bit, we decided to carry on and proceed to the Eastern side of the island, near to Chek Jawa. And we ended up getting dirty backs due to the mud which just keeps splashing upwards. The lack of the mud-guard at that time was obvious.

And only Jinyao had the mud-guard, which meant that his back was much more cleaner than ours. Haha.


Talk about dirty backs


Closer view


Taking a breather


Kent injured after doing a lil' too much drifting...


Nice view


Group pic!


Anqi & Me

So moving on, we managed to make it to Orchid (which sells drinks) and back to the hut which we were before, so it ended up as a loop in total. We pushed further down to the Quarry, which was in the central side of the island, and the terrain there was much better for most parts of the journey.

The view was also great, passing by not 2 but many quarries and bridges, as well as passing by the OBS campsite. Also, we passed by a path lined with many rambutan trees, as well as the Ubin Thai Temple!


Ubin OBS


Best quote :)


Such stores are common on Ubin ;)


Ubin Thai Temple


The nice-looking signboard


The Quarry


We've reached!

It was a fun and shack day, but it sure did not end at Ubin. We ended the trip at around 6pm and we made our way back to mainland trudgingly, after washing up and having a change of clothes.

Then, it was dinner at LJS @ TM, where we just sat there and continued talking, with a couple of interesting convos going on. Haha. Scandals flying in the air. I think this is a trademark of our OG. Plus the fact that some of us seem to have hearing problems in the OG (lol!)

On the way back via train, dang....I was so so so EXHAUSTED! But, it was a great, fun day ^_^ Fun like these, should last...

Current Mood: Exhausted

Blading...Redux!

This time round, went blading with the Fuego people (freshies and councillors) @ ECP! A great turn-out, with 15 people in all, all on skates! Definitely many beginners, as seen by the all-so-frequent 'four legs pointing sky' techniques shown.

And I also had a bumpy day. All the time I had a weird feeling on the reliability of my skates. Seemed woobily at high speeds. Did some falls, but luckily, no back-flips...YET.

After ECP, we had dinner over @ Chomp Chomp @ Serangoon Gardens. Taking a cab there, each paying 3 bucks was still okay I guess. Moreover, the food's the main drawing attention so.... ^_^

Full, and a satisfied day!

Current Mood: Happy

Current Music: Guang Liang - Xiang Zuo Zou Xiang You Zou

The Island

You have Been Chosen...to the ISLAND.

Luckily, that's an interesting show, as Yi Si and I failed to catch Sin City for reasons oblivious to the Ticketing Booth at GV. Interestingly, I asked the Ticketing Booth if we need to show both of our ICs to him, but he only requested for one, which I duly showed him.

Yet, the auntie at the entrance of the movie theatre chose to shoo us away, just because Yi Si's 2 months short of his birthday. And I think the pathetic answer by the Ticketing Booth is really CMI. Oh well. Had to shell out another 2 bucks for the movie "The Island", just because it was a preview.

I feel totally suckered by the money-gobbling organisation of Golden Village.

Oh yea. No apologies or nothing. Just said that, "Since you have not reached 21, you cannot watch it, till [b]after[/b] your birthday."

Anyway, I won't let my day get lousy with that pathetic straight-out-of-textbook remarks by the staff at GV, so I shall go on to the finer things in life.

Shopping @ F-Men was great...50% off sia, just nice for me to get the t-shirts and jeans which I was looking for all the while for school. Haha. 2 t-shirts, 1 jeans for $55, which is decent I must say.

And, regarding the movie "The Island", it's an interesting story, but an outdated concept. While it's true that genetics is becoming more and more researched upon by scientists, who are looking for the Holy Grail of modern science, it shows what could happen if the intentions were mis-matched with the ultimate goal.

For man trying to be God, it's a difficult task.

And morality is an issue here. Who determines that you have the power to give life, only to take it away from them when the need arises for 'spare parts'? (E.g. heart, kidneys, lungs etc) True, the idea was in effect good and could potentially prolong human life, yet the very idea of harvesting from the sponsors' clones is certainly a crime.

So in effect, the movie is sort of like "Minority Report", whereby the issues inherent in the movie set you thinking.

I've enjoyed the movie, not due to the special effects or the plot (which was a bit off-tangent at times), but due to the issues the producers choose to delve into.

Current Mood: Angry

Current Music: The Island OST

Compelled to post...

I'm feeling compelled to post this...regarding the NKF saga, there's been so much stuff written about it on the Internet and the forums, that I think it's just a show of how vocal Singaporeans are.

I mean, when the truth of how the NKF run things, how much they pay their CEO and the benefits he gets is reported to the public, it contradicts the very belief of what people had been doing all along - for CHARITY.

The public's trust in NKF has been shattered, and it'll take a long time before this saga gets buried and laid to rest, and the new team tries to resurrect a broken image in the eyes of the public.

While I believe that most people may have already known that NKF has more reserves than actually reported, and that the 'volunteers' are paid highly (esp those up the ladder), it has never been a fact.

Not till NKF's CEO Mr T T Durai decided to take action and sue for defamation against a Straits Times reporter, Ms Susan Long.

A costly mistake, as many of the unreported and dark secrets of the running of NKF came under the close scrutiny of the defending counsel and the public.

A can of worms, opened.

I guess it was a wrong call by Mr Durai, and the remarks by Mrs Goh just added oil to the fire, which was a little insensitive in anyway. I personally felt it as a remark against us, the commoners, who had to work through sweat and blood to earn money and donate, while the CEO sits up there, does a few charity shows, and earns $600,000 worth of PEANUTS.

Oh yea, it sure got many enraged. Who wouldn't?

I guess this is another good example of shooting off the cuff, without thinking and getting the idea across wrongly.

Quote of the Day: Got Peanuts?

NDP Rehearsal!

Woke up early in the morning, having barely 3 hours of sleep, to help my dad with the Straits Times "Win A Car Contest". The prize? A cool looking Mazda 6. And we got on track with the info and the newspaper cut-outs all safely kept aside. All we needed to do was to fit in the last few letters into the appropriate blanks and we will know where's the location of the lucky draw.

It was at ECP's MacDonald's. I should've guessed, since it was mentioned that the place is "Where the sun rises by the sea". So we went early, managed to get a carpark lot, and spent the subseuqent 4+ hours there awaiting for the lucky draw timeslot, which finally arrived.

The event passed us by so swiftly, I reckoned I did not feel the least bit engaged by the event. And 4 hours was such a waste of time, I could've used it for some nice rest. Really.

Anyway, got home after sending Weisi to grandmother's place, and lazed around before setting off for the NDP Rehearsals down at the Padang. Took many pictures of the vehicles for the mobile column, as well as the fireworks. Once uploaded, will post the pics here for viewing.

Anyone interested to do another NDP viewing next Sat? =D

Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: Lionel Richie - Dance For The World

Blading

Oooh...I'm getting the hang of blading. Well, still a beginner only, and I reckon I have a long long way to go before I know how to stop and balance myself properly. Just returned from the blading outing with my Sports Camp people, straight from my ChEss camp. Shack man.

And I had the 'honour' of losing on of the wheels of my skates, ending up requiring me to walk/run back to the skate shop. On top of that, my legs and feet became sore.

After that we went over to Bedok Blk 85 to have food, luckily we've 3 cars, so ferrying of the people to the food-center is no problem. And it was a wonderful meal too :)

Bladers!


Picking up the ropes...


Seah & Me

Later on...gotta check my Hall application, as well as attend Cpt Don's COC Parade...the changes have finally come into place...

Auto-sleep Mode Activated

FUEGO!

Woot! Just back from Chem Engine FOC (Freshmen Orientation Camp), which was held over 4 days at the Southern end of Singapore...SENTOSA! It was fun fun fun! :) Sore feet after that...haha. And a deprivation of sleep to boot.

Day 1 - Warmup! Socializing! SP & Fright Night!
Reached LT6 in the morning, drove my dad's car to school (sorta like a lift, cos he requires the car after that) and realise that some of the 'roads' shown on the NUS map are not to be trusted...haha. Took my barang barang (which is considerably lighter than whatever I had for Sports Camp) and found LT6 after taking a lift. Was terribly confused with the sheer number of seniors there. And inside, I realised that the ratio of seniors to juniors is something like 1:1...which is quite amazing indeed. Met Adrain, and realised my OG group is FUEGO. Met up with Jiaquan, who called me the night before to remind me to attend the camp. I was one of the earlier guys in the LT, so I was practically surrounded by seniors, and I was a little...lonely? Haha. But the seniors were nice, and they were all from the same class!

Slowly, more of my OG mates trickled in. Met Justin, Kent, Jinyao, Mark, Zhihao, Anqi, Weili and Angela. Started off with introduction, ice-breaker games and practising of cheers. Then, came a buffet-styled lunch and continuation of the campus games. The campus games were fun, and luckily, not as suggestive as the ones we did for Sports Camp. I still cant forget the body part game, where me and Jinyao had to do a nose-nose touch...that's damn difficult sia.

After all the fun, we learnt the mass dance moves, which got it's song from BoA's Ugly Duckling. It's a great song, and the moves were a little on the cute side, but oh well, it's still something to learn :)

After that, we packed up our stuff and moved off to the buses which were awaiting to ferry us to Sentosa. After checking into the Costa Sands Resort rooms, we had dinner as well as SP Night. 4 guys whisked into a room, blindfolded and half-sleepy, and requiring us to talk to the lady (also blindfolded) for an hour or so, whilst the organisers played games for the pairs. My nick? Ben Affleck. Woot. I like Jennifer Garner anyway. Haha.

After SP Night, we had a re-org of our OG and were led to the 7-11 for some re-supply. Our OG was the first to enter the house for Fright Night, so naturally the entire gang of 'ghosts' were energetic and lively. My partner was one of my counsellors, Adeline. I doubted she's afraid, since she's a councillor, and most probably had gone through the Fright Night route before. Was telling her some of the more possible places the 'ghosts' could hide. There was make-up on, so the 'ghosts' look damn real. Mostly, I was expecting certain events to happen, so I was surprised when certain events unfolded.

The most eerie part was when the 'ghosts' were in a damn dark room, everything was closed, and they try to grab your leg when u move, and they throw pebbles on the ground. But my partner and I just stood still and I tried to locate the source of the sounds. And the eerie sounds just heightened our senses. I accidentally kicked into one of the 'ghosts', and I mumbled "Sorry" immediately. After that, we scurried to our next station, which was also as frightening, as one of the 'ghosts' was above us to scare us, dripping some paint. That was interesting and a good idea, but I knew something was moving due to the noises made.

Fright Night was fun, yes. Most of the time I was walking slowly and looking out for the 'ambush' spots, and letting my partner know. But since we were one of the first groups to finish, we had to stay up to wait for the rest of the groups to finish, and by then, it was 3am already. Playing games in the comfort of the room, as well as talking nonsense. Hunger was on our minds, and the package which the seniors gave us came in useful...Yam Yam! Haha. Played the Murderer & Detective game, as well as the Polar Bear game. But, Mark's hypnotic voice soon steered us to lala-land...

Room for 6!


Staying up late...


Yam Yam!

Day 2 - Beach Games, SP Night, SABO-ed!
After a short 6 hours sleep, we awaken to a bright sunny day for some dry land games. Well, I reckoned that breakfast would most likely be the same as what I had for Sports Camp - Bread and spread.

I was proved wrong.

Instead of just bread and spread, we had ham, sausages, tomato slices and cucumber pieces to go with the bread! Is that good or what? A good start to the day, indeed.

After that, we started our games at Sapphire Hall, with the Animal Farm game. We were the MooMoo (aka cow) team. Interesting sia...cos we do a MOOOOOOmoooooo sound *lol*. After that, we proceeded to the first of the dry land games, which was to make a sandwich out of bread, lettuce, chili sauce, ketchup and sausages. The passing of the ingredients were done using the face, by applying the sauces on either side of the face, and the others using the mouth. And we had to eat our creation after the entire thing in the fastest possible time. Though we won, it was a sandwich filled with sand, and the face was scorching with the chili sauce on one side.

Alas, when we were en route to our next station, a wave of torrential rain came and we had to seek shelter immediately, thus moving on to the wet weather programme - OG interaction and games, as well as the learning of the Mass Dance steps.

Luckily enough, after lunch the sky cleared and we proceeded on with some beach volleyball first, followed by the wet beach games. (Don't all beach games mean it's gonna be wet?) Caterpillar walk, Frisbee, Dumping water into a bin full of holes, 100 mins no NG, Filling up of water bombs and solving a puzzle piece. Our OG definitely ROCKED! Our statistics: W3,D1,L1. Haha.

After the beach games, it was washing-up time, and we had dinner followed by seniors talk. 3 graduates from the course came back to give some advice regarding our course and our potential futures in the various industries. SP Night followed, and it was upped a notch, with the exchanging of postcards (I seriously did not know what to write...). And the most unforgettable part of the SP night this time round was that the girl used camouflage cream (YES! SAF-issue!!!) to draw/outline our faces, guided by the councillor. I guessed my room dudes got it pretty bad, all 5 of us, as compared to others. This is what I look like...



Had to spend some time cleaning up the face, and after that was done, it was the appointment of the Pegeant couple for our OG (which also means it's SABO time, as the guys get to choose the girl, and vice versa). Alas, I kenna SABO-ed by the girls. And Angela was SABO-ed. And both of us had to learn the Mass Dance routine, 'cos we had to perform during the Finale Night the following day. It was a 1-on-1 coaching session by Jon and Kian Hong, but I guessed I slowly got the moves correct...Got used to the rhythm and beat of the song too! Angela was not bad, catching up fast with the steps and all. The rest? Well, they brushed up their dancing steps, as well as brain-storming of ideas for the skit for Finale Night also.

We talked and talked...and I think Angela and I drifted off to lala-land whilst the others were doing the finishing touches...Lotsa funny ideas flying here and there, Haha! (I still like the insurance thingy which Jinyao said =X)

Day 3 - More Games, Finale Night, Non-stop fun!
And thus we had more games...Games stations under shelter this time round. And we had to earn "cash" so as to bid for items for the dressing up of our mascot. Interestingly, we got awarded the tallest structure, answered most questions for the MRT Quiz correctly, but lost plenty of money on the Speed Eating & Drinking Game - eating of bread in 30sec and drinking of coke in 10sec. Still, we had plenty of money, and in the end we managed to get the stuff which we required: A long chain rubber bands, and a piece of cloth. We also got newspapers, and successfully got the straws (thanks to Jian Bang for his huge contribution...)

Our Mascot...? A "Dang Kee", with our best person...Jinyao as the lead character. Haha. And he certainly fitted into the role ;) Immediately after the mascot contest, we had Scavenger Hunt, and the Amazing Race along the beach. I feel stupid, 'cos I did not bring my IC along, as they needed one whose birthday is in July -_-"

The Amazing Race ended with us being one of the last groups, because of a slight technical error, and the fact that we were issued the wrong maps. Anyway, we had a fun water-bomb fight after that. Managed to hit some of the intended targets, but kenna the target of water-dunking also. Hurhurhur. I'm no match for the 4 strong senior dudes.

After the wet stuff, we went back to the chalets for shower, only to realise that the key's missing! We got the replacement key, and knew the original should have been left in the sand near the bags which we last left there.

Quickly changed into the clothes for the night, and had some discussions with Angela regarding the poses and stuff which we had to do for the Pageant, 'cos I had almost zilch ideas on how to do those. Heh. We were lucky that the rain gave us some extra time to practice the skit, familiarise Jinyao and Anqi with the dance moves (oh yea, cos the Pageant couple need not do the dance liao...haha) and for us to think of the poses.

After a dry run for the Pageant contestants was conducted, we met up with our SPs to finally know who's behind that blindfold. My SP was Huifang, ex-VJC lady. She's a friendly lady also, so that's a good sign ^_^ And our group of 5 SP couples had a total of 4 guys (Chris, Jiaxin, Gui Deng, me) and 1 lady (Jacqueline) in the Pageant, which is an interesting statistic too, haha.

The dinner was buffet-styled at the Siloso Beach Bar, under a clear night sky. Very romantic night and it was a cool evening too. Got SABO-ed for one of the stage games, which was to stuff as many marshmallows into the mouth as possible, and still be able to say a sentence. It was easy with 5, but 9 was too much already. My mouth was not big enough. I managed to win...by a whisker. Nonetheless, I shudder at the thought of marshmallows now...

The Q&A session for the Pageant was alright for me, and it passed quickly. Whew! We had more fun with the skit put up by my friends. Corny, indeed. But, alas, Acqua won the skit, and the Pageant winners were also from their OG. Kudos to them.


Marshmallow Contest


That's me on stage


Angela & Me ;)


I like to shake it shake it...


(L-R) Me, Justin, Jinyao, Kent, Zhihao


We are....FUEGO! ^_^


Yum Seng!




The night was young, and...we embarked on a night full of fun and games, especially with the camping outside 7-11 doing "qian4 bian3" riddles. After that, it was Captain's Ball with Vento, and it was fun to do that throughout the night. Did not feel lethargic in fact.

And guess what? Kent & I managed to find our missing room key, lying on the sand, untouched. Lucky, indeed.


Playing Cards


This is interesting...

We played till around 5 plus, then slowly walked back to our chalet as the day turned brighter. While the rest retired for a nap, I talked to Weilian and had a nice chat, as I did not wish to sleep.


Totally conked out

Day 4 - Last day...sadness...
Whilst the rest were sleeping, I used the Internet and played the Arcade games downstairs, which kept me awake somewhat. Hunger soon struck, and the thought of it coming at 0930 hrs soothed me...till it was postponed. Heh.

Nonetheless, we finally checked out of the rooms and had our breakfast of bread with kaya in Emerald Hall. Fulfilling indeed! Then we had our last Mass Dance and cheers, and it was goodbye after that. Even got a Frisbee from the O-Comm! It's nice of them to present a group gift to us :)

Our OG proceeded to get out of Sentosa and to HarbourFront Subway, where we had our lunch. It was more of a after-camp atmosphere, relaxed and tired souls trying to finds things to talk about.


Me & Adrain!


I don't like that evil grin...AT ALL


Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: BoA - Ugly Duckling